When I first started this blog a little over a year ago, the idea was to track and record what my family & I consumed on a regular basis. I don’t know when or how it happened but somehow, the JessPaigeLCHF blog became more than that. It became a gateway to a world that, over a year ago, I had no clue existed. Through my many social media forums, I’ve acquired friends all strewn over the planet we call home. Never would I ever have imagined I could be able to connect with so many brilliant people that would make me strive to better myself, increase my knowledge and spur new ideas.

Hence, when Emily Maguire from Low Carb Genesis reached out to me by e-mail on a sunny day in September of 2014, I never could have imagined I’d be meeting her in my hometown just a mere 11 months later. We corresponded daily and tried to set up Skype call after Skype call but with the time difference, it was difficult to coordinate. Luckily, when she decided to start her LCHF world tour, one of the many places that she decided to visit was Montreal!

From Scotland to Montreal

We decided on Mandy’s Salad Bar, a quaint little gourmet salad bar in the heart of Westmount, for our first meet up. It was so surreal! Chitchatting while in line awaiting our October Salads with bacon & egg, I quickly got to hear of all the incredible people she’d met along her LCHF world tour. We discussed our reasons for following a low-carbohydrate diet, how flawed the nutritional dogma is among other things. We ate Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups in the park (so addictive!) and just had an overall blast.

Omnivore World Tour 2015 & Periscope

The Omnivore World Tour, an international culinary festival in which approximately 2 dozen local and international chefs come to offer their best dishes, was on show in Montreal… How could two foodies not go? We decided to go on the Saturday and check out the scene.

The whole exhibit could be described in one word: delicious. Or.. maybe two: delicious & non-LCHF, haha. As Em and I went around tasting & periscope-ing (Is that a word?) our experiences, our taste buds were transported to heaven. Her and I both agree that our favourite experience was from Chef Marc Alexandre Mercier of Hotel Herman. It consisted of “brouillade d’oeuf, esturgeon fumé, caviar de mullet”. In English, that’s egg foam, smoked sturgeon and mullet caviar with some black Périgord truffle shavings on top all served in an egg shell.

While the dish was not the most visually appealing, you need to trust us when we tell you it was: out-of-this-world good (and bonus! Keto-friendly). Make sure to watch my Periscope videos (just search jesspaigelchf in the Periscope app) so see us at the event & what our reactions were.

Another dish that I got the pleasure of tasting was made by Chef Christophe Parasiuk from Restaurant Manitoba. His dish was composed of: “champignon homard, écrasé de pois verts et arroche, nori, salicorne et plantain maritime”. In English, that’s lobster mushrooms, crushed green peas, nori, samphire greens & maritime plantains. I particularly enjoyed the lobster mushrooms in this dish, so exquisite and, I’m pretty sure.. sautéed in butter.

We really wanted to taste the Lamb Barbacoa from William Cody & Gil MacNutt but they were completely out by the time we got through the line.. We still went home with our bellies full & massive smiles on our faces.

See all the foods we tasted on my Instagram or watch our reactions live on my Periscope account.